BJP urges Yashwant to reconsider Gadkari views

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Last Updated: Tue, Nov 20, 2012 20:58 hrs

New Delhi, Nov 21 (IBNS) Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) continued to face embarrassments over the issue of its president Nitin Gadkari from within as after the Jethmalanis, it is now party senior leader Yashwant Sinha who demanded that the party chief should step down over business malpractice charges.

The BJP later told reporters that Sinha was urged to reconsider his views.

Yashwant Sinha told reporters on Wednesday that Gadkari should step down as the party chief to honour propriety in public life.

"Whether our party president is guilty or not is not the issue. The issue is that all of us in public life should be beyond reproach," he said, urging Gadkari to step down.

Later BJP spokesperson and senior leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said "Yashwant Sinha is a senior leader and he has every right to express his views in party forums. We urge him to reconsider his views."

Earlier this month, senior BJP leader and legal luminary Ram Jethmalani revolted openly against the party leadership saying Nitin Gadkari must step down as the president of the outfit till a probe into the corruption charges against him cleared him.

At a press conference he also had claimed that other senior leaders like Jaswant Singh, Yashwant Sinha and Shatrughan Sinha shared his views on Gadkari´s removal.

"During the probe [to which Gadkari says he has not objection], please step out of the office," said Ram Jethmalani referring to Nitin Gadkari, soon after his son Mahesh Jethmalani resigned as a member of the National Executive Committee of the BJP to protest the continuance of Gadkari as the party president.